Youth Employment, Informality, and Precarity in the Global South

Characteristics of labor markets are often assumed to be universal, when in fact they are peculiar to patterns of employment in Europe and North America. This essay makes these universalist assumptions about labor markets for youth explicit, challenging their foundational claims in relation to trends in parts of the Global South. Urbanization, the Standard Employment Relationship (SER), and the notions of precarity are all analyzed for their Northern biases. The work of early labor market theorist W. Arthur Lewis is then explored, critiquing how his theory was reduced to one aspect—rural labor migration to urban factory work to increase productivity—when it had complex social, political, educational, and policy-related implications. Southern scholars should not be interpreted in terms of their relevance to Northern processes. They should be grappled with on their own terms, in relation to the Southern contexts from which they speak. Finally, an agenda for Southern labor market theory building is offered.

Venezuelan Youth and the Routinization of Conflict

This essay examines young Venezuelans’ experiences of daily insecurities and critical situations and their responses using the framework of ontological security. The study uses the concept of ‘multiple youths,’ proposed by Latin American scholars, to link the ideas of security and identity, to explore the different intersubjective understandings of these notions in the lives of university students, and to explain their choice of conflict as part of the ordinary. Empirical analysis shows how routinization of conflict has a strong psychological impact on Venezuelan youth’s intersubjective identity formation and interpretation of events as ordinary or threatening. The routinization of conflict is a response to maintaining ontological security, providing a sense of constancy and continuity since it has become part of the routines of university students in Venezuela. In addition, conflict helps eliminate and/or delegitimize the ‘other,’ hence hindering dialogue and a negotiated solution to the current political impasse.

Researching the South on Its Own Terms as a Matter of Justice

This essay draws on the collective learnings from the research study published as Moral Eyes: Youth and justice in Cameroon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa in order to explore both the principles and possibilities of producing theory from the South by the South. By describing the journey of the study and highlighting its struggles and challenges, as well as innovative steps taken along the way, it offers insights into how existing geopolitical inequalities in knowledge production between the Global North and the Global South may be disrupted. Central to these disruptions include the role of Southern theory, the relationships between researchers, methods of data collection, and the ways in which participants are engaged in the study. The task of producing knowledge from the South by the South entails speaking out and insisting on the space to produce knowledge; speaking back while remaining geographically, ethically, and theoretically grounded; speaking up and rooting research in emancipatory methodologies and ontologies; and never being spoken for especially by only accepting funding that supports principles of justice and emancipation in Southern knowledge production.

A Southeast Asian Perspective on the Role for the Sociology of Generations in Building a Global Youth Studies

This chapter interrogates and develops one of the major conceptual traditions for thinking about social change as it intersects with youth and the life course: the sociology of generations. Grounded in an overview of how the notion of generations is used in two Southeast Asian contexts, Indonesia and the Philippines, it develops an alternative concept of generation, emphasizing intergenerational relationships, the impact of youth on the life course, the continuing impact of history and the refiguring of long-standing inequalities in the context of rapid change. An orientation to generations is limited if it is only used to illustrate change across groups within countries, but not new connections across borders. However, the opposite is also a limitation, too easily slipping into claims of a homogenous global generation. A global sociology of generations needs simultaneously to be aware of these differences and similarities that are in a constant state of flux.

A Southern Charter for a Global Youth Studies to Benefit the World

This essay reflects on the process of developing a handbook that foregrounds Southern perspectives on youth life-worlds, and does so by realigning theory, praxis, and justice. It applies the principles of self-reliance, solidarity, self-knowledge and a move from subordination to interdependence as described in the 1990 report of The South Commission, led by Julius Nyerere, to youth studies scholars from the Global South. Taking seriously the South Commission’s injunction that responsibility for change rests with those from the South who need to recreate their relationship with the North in order to make a global rather than parochial contribution, it describes the aims of the handbook and the many challenges experienced in producing it. Among these challenges are the difficulty Southern scholars have in producing theory, the precarity of their lives, the invisibility of much existing Southern scholarship, and the importance of communities of practice within the South and between the South and North. It concludes by offering a charter for remaking youth studies from one that universalizes Northern perspectives into a truly global youth studies, one that is enriched by, and welcomes the contribution of Global South scholars on their own terms.

Unearthing Historical Violence in the Lives of Filipino Istambays Using Rizal’s Theory of the Colonial Philippines

This essay introduces the concept of ‘historical violence’ in the lives of young Filipinos, especially those who are unemployed and referred to locally as the istambay (on standby) phenomenon. Drawing on the work of José Rizal, a nineteenth-century Filipino social thinker and activist, the essay offers a dialogue between the past and present locating the istambay phenomenon in the colonial experience of a nation. It argues for the necessity of historicizing violence, and recognizing the violent effects of colonialism, in order to understand and challenge stereotypes such as those regarding young Filipinos’ attitudes toward work. Historical accounts demonstrate how colonization continues to affect life stages such as youth. Rizal’s narratives of sustainability, precolonial history, and globalization are linked to current sociologies of youth, religion, and public policy.

Why, When, and How the Global South Became Relevant

The idea of the Global South gained traction in the second half of the twentieth century, as certain real and discursive changes occurred to the geopolitical, economic, and epistemological processes established under modernity. Three interconnected global processes—colonialism/postcolonialism, capitalism/industrial development and knowledge flows—processes which collectively forged modernity, underwent significant changes. Previously colonized territories became independent and new technologies and connectivity enabled ideas and people from the former colonies to speak and indeed move back to the Global North. These changes formed part of global transformations to economic modes of production and corporate governance. Industrial and economic processes have therefore intersected with geopolitical changes and epistemological flows to enable slivers of the Global South to emerge in the interstices of powerful political, industrial, and epistemological forces. The Global South creates portals of opportunity for a more democratic, inclusive, and collaborative world, but it could also simply produce new inequalities and divisions reinforced along familiar lines.

Global South Youth Studies, Its Forms and Differences among the South, and between the North and South

This essay comprises reflections of scholars in and originating from the Global South, plus some comments from Northern scholars, forming an integrated dialogue. It focuses on the development of youth studies in Africa, Latin America, parts of Asia, and the Caribbean, illuminating how youth studies in, from, and for the South emerge as a result of struggle—to get recognition, to theorize beyond dominant Northern frameworks, and state-led developments, and to be heard. Paradoxically, youth studies from the South are strongly influenced by the work of Northern scholars. Despite these influences, Northern ideas struggle to grasp local contexts and conditions and consequently there is a need for more localized knowledge and theorizing to make sense of young people’s lives outside the Global North. The reflections provide a reminder that struggles over the meaning and situation of youth, within particular contexts, are highly political.

Representations of Young People and Neoliberal Developmentalism in the Global South

Negative representations of young people as ‘troublemakers,’ ‘idle’ or ‘politically disinterested’ have been commonplace. More recently, newer representations include seemingly positive labels such as ‘change agent,’ ‘politically engaged’ and ‘youth entrepreneurs.’ This essay explores the politics of representing young people, particularly in the Global South, and highlights how young people are represented by political elites and how they represent themselves. The central argument is that the neoliberal development model promotes representations of young people that do not best serve their interests. Stuart Hall’s work is used to understand how these representations conceal the chasm between contemporary discourses such as that of the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ ‘Youth participation’ and ‘Sustainability,’ and the lived experiences of young people in Southern contexts. Hall’s theory of representations also highlights the politics operating between dominant discourses aimed at coopting so-called subordinate groups into a shared consensus, and the possibilities of disrupting that consensus.

Realigning Theory, Practice, and Justice in Global South Youth Studies

This essay outlines an agenda for youth studies from the vantage point of the Global South and describes the structure of the Oxford handbook of Global South Youth Studies. Youth in the Global South emerge in the postcolonial world in relation to material and social precarity, with their everyday practices constituting embodied forms of knowing, responses to their social, material, economic, and political circumstances. Research with Southern youth therefore involves working alongside, documenting, and acknowledging these practices, an exercise that constitutes a form of ‘epistepraxis’: a knowledge creation endeavor underpinned by contextually relevant theory, aligned with people’s innovative practices, in search of social justice. This approach is reflected in the structure of the handbook. An introductory section distils the conditions that precipitated the Global South and the characteristics of youthful populations that inhabit it. The second part grapples with features of life for youth in the Global South, unpacking eleven relevant concepts, using Southern theory. The final section continues to explore the intersections of theory, practice, and politics, shifting focus to look specifically at examples of methodological, practical, and policy-related interventions, in an attempt to disrupt business-as-usual knowledge production.